Uniform
by Ashlielle
Summary: As a police officer, Luffy had many exciting adventures. But being defeated by fat old guys with nasty teeth isn't part of his job description, right? And neither is saving his brother's life and going back and forth between two worlds! So what's going on? Ace and Sabo will fix everything! Or maybe his other self can help set things right?
1. Thieves, Oranges, and Big Beards

**WOOP WOOP! Okay, new story time~! This is actually a mission I have taken from a fellow OP fan who reads my other story "Star of Hope"! **

**Okay, so that you can get the gist of it, here is the request:**

"_**I am issuing a challenge! I challenge someone to make a modern one piece AU where Luffy is a policeman with his own cruiser and sent to capture Blackbeard and gets severely injured in the process, but he doesn't die. Ace is a firefighter(he cant die in this story) working for whitebeard, and Blackbeard is in his unit. Sabo is an EMT(he cant die either) sent to help Luffy by coincidence. All three of them are still brothers though. it cant be a one shot. you have to keep the story going by having ace and Sabo do something about Blackbeard or something, same thing with luffy too. but, the chapters shouldn't be short, either." –**_** Request from ****phonenix**

**Thank you! I shall accept! CHALLENGE, START!**

**Disclaimer: I shoot you with my police guns! Luffy, go after them! *Luffy chases everyone away* FUAHAHAHAHA! *gets shot by Luffy and taken to jail for plagiarism***

_Chapter 1 ~ Thieves, Oranges, and Big Beards_

"Wait up, darn it! Fight me like a man!" a young police officer of almost twenty years called out as he ran down an alley at top speed.

"No way! And I'm a _woman_!"

His target ran around the corner of a building, bag of stolen money and all. As he rounded the corner, he realized his target had disappeared.

"What the…?" Luffy said.

His black hair stuck to his forehead beneath his straw hat, which made for an odd outfit when combined with his dark blue uniform. Suddenly his stomach rumbled.

"C'mon~! I hafta' hurry up and find you so I can eat~!" Luffy whined.

A voice from above yelled down as he turned to walk away and look in another area.

"No way, stupid officer! Come and get me!" the feminine voice filled the alley way and the owner of the voice turned and ran, jumping from roof to roof.

"Gomu Gomu no… _Rocket_!" Luffy shot himself over two roofs and was already almost caught up to the woman he was pursuing.

She wore a full black suit and a helmet, so there was no way to identify her other than by voice. A large bag was hanging over her shoulder, resting on her back as she jumped from building to building.

"I'm so hungry~! But I have to catch you!" Luffy said, having an internal struggle with himself between food and his job, "Darn it! Food! Catch! Food! Catch! I don't know~!"

"Oh, look, a donut stand!" the woman suddenly gasped and pointed down at the street below.

"Really?!" Luffy said, looking down at the street and stopping completely.

After a quick look over of the area, Luffy realized there was no donut stand, and now the thief was gone.

"Whaaaat~?! No food _or_ catch?!" Luffy shouted and frowned in disappointment.

"You having trouble up here?" a low man's voice said.

"Hm? Zoro?" Luffy turned around to face his green-haired friend. "What're you doing here?"

"My job," Zoro stated, "You didn't answer my question."

"Question? What question?" Luffy asked.

Zoro sighed. "Are you having any trouble up here?"

"Huh? Yeah!" Luffy said.

"…" Zoro waited for Luffy's explanation for a few rather long moments before he realized who he was talking to.

"And…? What's your problem?" Zoro asked.

"Oh yeah! There was this lady with a big bag of money and I was chasing her but she tricked me and disappeared alluva' sudden!" Luffy said quickly, waving his hands around as he told his short story.

Suddenly the rubber officer sat down on the roof he was currently standing on.

"So hungry~! But I need to catch her~!" Luffy whined with his hands on his stomach.

"Let's go to the Sunny Café and we can think about where to look for her while you eat," Zoro said.

_***At Sunny Café a few minutes later***_

"Welcome to the Sunny Café! What can I get you off of our Merry Menu-!" a girl with tangerine colored hair came to greet the two boys.

"Yo, Nami!" Luffy said, giving her a toothy grin and a happy wave before he and Zoro headed off to their usual spot in the corner closest to the door and a window.

She went back to the kitchen to give orders to the blonde cook, who practically melted every time a woman walked into the same room as him.

"So, what did she look like?" Zoro asked.

"Dunno! She had this cool looking helmet on and a black suit!" Luffy said, eyes sparkling as he remembered the 'cool costume' of the thief.

Zoro's hand met his forehead and he sighed tiredly.

"How am I supposed to help you if you can't even tell me what she _looks _like, you idiot?" Zoro asked.

"Dunno!" Luffy laughed, "Hey! Namiiiii~! Sanjiiiii~! I'm hungry~!"

"Well," Zoro began as Nami approached and whacked Luffy upside the head before walking away and mumbling something inaudible under her breath, "Can you at least tell me what she sounds like?"

"Nami!" Luffy answered.

"Nami?" Zoro asked.

"Sort of! But not really that much!" Luffy said.

Suddenly his cell phone rang and his long-nosed friend ran in through the door. Preferring to answer his phone before his friend told him the latest news, he stuck his hand into his pocket and answered his cell.

"_Hey Lu? You there?"_ a familiar voice sounded over the phone.

"Ace! What's up?" Luffy said happily.

"_I'm going to be home late tonight, okay? Will you pass that on to Sabo for me? I don't have enough time to call him too," _Ace said.

"Okay! I will!" Luffy said, "What are you doing?"

"_I've got some training to do with a newbie in my unit," _Ace said, _"It'll take a while so you better not stay up late waiting for me, okay?"_

"Yeah! Okay! Bye bye!" Luffy chirped through the phone as Usopp danced around like he had to pee.

"_Bye Lu! See you later!"_

"LUFFY!" Usopp said as Luffy hung up.

"What?" Luffy said, looking at him curiously.

Usopp shoved a poster in his face. It had a man with a big black beard on it, but most of his face was shadowed. His bounty was _huge_ and he looked fat, based off of the shadowed figure. Across the paper under the picture, the name _BLACKBEARD_ was written in all capital letters.

Zoro and Luffy looked at it curiously for a moment before Zoro took it and shoved it into his haramaki.

"You're not g-going to f-f-fight him, r-r-right?" Usopp stuttered.

"Maybe, now shut up and sit down," Zoro said, "We're talking about something you will probably be interested in."

Usopp sat in the chair next to Luffy as Sanji sat down plates in front of the officer and swordsman.

"What is it?" Usopp asked curiously.

"Some girl dressed in black stole money from a shop in the corner and Luffy lost her during the chase," Zoro said.

"And she had this really cool helmet! And her voice sounded just a _little_ bit like Nami's, but not that much!" Luffy said happily, excited to have a sudden mystery case instead of traffic or something like that (which he always messed up at).

"Like me?" Nami said as she put a plate down in front of Usopp and put a tangerine on Luffy's plate.

"Hm?" Luffy hummed as he looked down at the new addition to his meal, "What's this for? Did you drop it?"

"…" Nami looked at Luffy for a few moments before turning around with a smile, "No, just giving you a 'present' to raise your debt."

"Wha-?! No fair!" Luffy whined.

Nami chuckled as she walked into the kitchen and the door swung shut behind her.

"Well, that sucks for you bro," a man at the next table over said.

"Franky!" Luffy and Usopp both practically cheered out in unison.

Said man grinned and raised a giant hand to give them a thumbs-up.

"Your conversation sounds _super_ interesting!" Franky said, "Mind if I join?"

"No work lately?" Zoro asked.

"Yeah… The people in this town don't appreciate my _super_ awesome craftsmanship enough!" Franky replied.

Zoro nodded once before he began eating his food.

"So, Luffy, how did you lose her?" Usopp asked after an awkward moment of silence.

"She tricked me!" Luffy said.

He pouted and crossed his arms angrily. He hated it when people tricked him with food. And why was it always donuts? Shouldn't he know better by now? He frowned as his head became hot and red from thinking so much.

Franky handed him a glass of water and told him to be stupid again before he dug back into his food.

"How?" Usopp asked.

"Donuts." He picked up a chicken leg from his plate and bit into it happily.

Everyone sweat-dropped and looked at him oddly. When he looked back up at them they looked back down at their plates and began eating again quickly.

"Donuts, huh? Always the donuts…" Usopp said.

Luffy smiled. "Hey, Nami~! I wanna donut!"

"Really?" Franky asked.

"Yeah! We keep talking about donuts so now I want one!" Luffy replied with a grin.

After his donut was brought, they talked for a few hours until it was close to sunset.

"I have to go back to the shop now," Franky said, waving a large hand at them, "Tom and Ice-for-brains are probably waiting for me by now."

"And I have to head back to the station," Usopp said as he got up and walked towards the door.

"I want to take a nap," Zoro said, getting up to follow Usopp out the door.

Luffy grinned and waved at them all. After they left, he suddenly remembered something important.

"Oh yeah! Gotta call Sabo!" he said as he pulled his cell phone back out.

"_Luffy?" _Sabo's voice sounded through the phone after a few moments of the annoying ringing that Luffy hated so much.

"Sabo!" Luffy called enthusiastically through the speaker.

"_What is it?"_ Sabo asked.

"Umm…" Luffy put a finger against his head as he thought, "Oh yeah! Ace is coming home late!"

"_Okay. Isn't that a normal thing though?" _Sabo said.

"He said he's training a new guy!" Luffy said.

"_Oh, really? I wonder if that idiot can train anyone," _Sabo said.

"Huh?"

"_It's nothing,"_ Sabo said, _"Hey, I have to go. Bye Lu! See you tonight!"_

"Okay! Bye bye!" Luffy said happily, shutting his cell phone and putting it in his pocket.

He headed off towards the police station to get his police cruiser and drive it home. Though he absolutely hated driving, it was much quicker to get around that way and so he drove his cruiser to and from work only. And out on jobs, too, when they weren't close to the station.

When he reached the station, one of his younger colleagues came out of the building.

"Coby! Yo!" Luffy called to the pink haired young man.

"Luffy-san!" Coby said.

Luffy looked Coby over. The kid had left for a few months of training and came back to the station a rank higher and was hardly recognizable. His pink hair was a giveaway, but he was now taller and had more muscle.

"Going home?" Luffy asked.

"Yeah, you?" Coby replied happily.

"Yup!" Luffy answered, sitting in his car.

"I won't keep you then," Coby said, "Goodbye Luffy! Have a good night!"

"Yeah! Bye!" Luffy said as he shut the door of his car and started the engine.

That was another thing he hated about cars. They were so loud! He frowned at the wheel disapprovingly as he drove away from the station.

When he reached his home, which he happily shared with his brothers, he was more than happy to stop the car and run inside.

"I'm home~!" Luffy called as he walked in.

Suddenly a little white dog ran up to him and started barking at him.

"Hi ChouChou!" Luffy said, reaching down to scratch behind the little dog's ears before he walked to his room.

He changed out of his uniform as quickly as possible and got into his casual clothing. ChouChou followed him everywhere, practically walking on his feet as he tried to move.

"Hey, hey! Calm down!" Luffy said, almost tripping on the little dog as he went to turn the TV on.

"_-and here's the footage from just a few hours ago." _The lady on the screen said.

Suddenly a video began playing. A woman in a black suit wearing a helmet was jumping roof to roof, followed by a very familiar figure.

"Hey, that's me!" Luffy said to no one in particular as he pointed at the screen and looked at it wide eyed.

At that moment his cellphone rang and he pulled it out hurriedly.

"_Hello? Luffy?" _

"Usopp? What?" Luffy asked.

"_Turn on your TV!"_ Usopp said.

"It's already on," Luffy said, grinning his usual silly grin.

"_Why are you always doing stupid stuff?"_ Usopp asked, _"I know you said it was a roof to roof chase, but seeing it like this is crazy!"_

"Heh heh heh! I know, right? It's so cool!" Luffy said.

"_IT'S NOT-!"_ Luffy hung up his cellphone before Usopp could finish and set it down on the couch beside him.

He turned his attention back to the TV for a few moments before his phone rang again.

"_YOU JERK! HOW COULD YOU HANG UP ON ME LIKE THAT? I THOUGHT WE WERE BUDDIES!" _Usopp screamed.

"Hahaha! If I knew hanging up on you was so funny, I woulda done it before now!" Luffy said happily.

On the TV, a picture of Ace and the people he worked with suddenly came up. In the front was Ace, Marco, and Thatch. On the side, there was a fatter looking man with a big black beard, and in the back, standing taller than all of them, was a _huge_ man with a _huge_ white beard!

"WHOA~!" Luffy said.

"_Huh? What is it?"_ Usopp said.

"Those guys have really big beards! I want one too!" Luffy said.

"_Oh, you've still got the news on? It's a wonder, seeing two of the brother trio on television in one night, but not very surprising," _ Usopp said.

"Heheheh!" Luffy just laughed in response.

"_Hey, I gotta go! Chopper's here so-!" _Usopp began.

"Can I come too? My house is boring!" Luffy said.

"_Yeah, sure! Chopper says hi, by the way," _Usopp agreed.

"Yay! Well I'm coming so tell Chopper he can say hi to me when I get there!" Luffy said, grinning happily.

"_Okay! See you in a few!"_ Usopp said.

Luffy put his phone back in his pocket as he put his sandals on and turned off the TV.

"_**At Usopp's house***_

"Yes! I win again!" Usopp said.

"Aww!" Chopper cried, upset that he had lost for the sixth time in a row since his arrival.

"But you cheated, Usopp-san!" a merry voice came from nearby.

"Shhhh! You can't do that to me-! ACK!" Usopp said as Chopper tackled him in his heavy point.

"USOPP! HOW COULD YOU?" Chopper said as Usopp began fighting back, sending cards flying around the room in every direction.

The doorbell suddenly rang repeatedly, summoning a skeleton from his spot near the table and to the door. When he opened the door, a familiar rubber man walked in happily.

"Yohohohoho! Good afternoon, Luffy-san!" Brook said as he shut the door behind Luffy and went to claim his spot by the table again.

"Yo!" Luffy said, waving his hand at his friends.

"Yay! Luffy!" Chopper said as he jumped on his friend and gave him a huge hug.

The doorbell rang again and they all looked around at each other confused. Brook opened the door anyway, and was pleasantly surprised to see their friend Nami at the door.

"I heard the noise from across the street. Can I join?" she said, jerking her thumb to point at a cute house on the opposite side of the road.

"Yeah! The more the ferrier!" Luffy said happily.

"I think you mean the more the _merrier_, Luffy," Usopp corrected.

"Yeah, what he said," Luffy said.

"Nami!" Chopper let go of Luffy to run up to Nami and hug her as well.

"Hey guys! It's time for me to wipe this party house clean!" Nami said.

"No way! I'm winning this time!" Usopp said.

The group played games for the rest of the night until 11 o'clock pm, when Chopper had stated he was exhausted and wanted to go to bed. Luffy offered to walk home with him since his house was close to his little reindeer friend's home, and so there the two boys were, walking down the street together.

"Luuuufffyyyyy~!" Chopper groaned.

"What?" Luffy said.

"When're we gonna be there~?" Chopper asked.

"Soon," Luffy said, "You want me to carry you?"

"Yeah, thanks," Chopper said tiredly.

Luffy lifted the little reindeer up and snuggled him tight. It was cold outside. The early autumn season was making the air chilly, and leaves would occasionally flutter through the air near his face.

When they reached Chopper's home, Luffy found the spare key with Chopper's instruction and unlocked the door. The little guy climbed down out of Luffy's arms once the door had been opened, wished him goodnight, and taken the keys when suddenly Luffy's cellphone rang.

"Again? My cell is ringing a lot today," Luffy said as he pulled his phone from his pocket, "Hey Chopper, can I come in for a few?"

"Yeah," Chopper said, opening the door enough for Luffy to fit in.

"Hello?" Luffy said into his phone.

"_Officer Luffy! We need you to get dressed and be at the fire station as soon as possible! All of the backup we can get is needed NOW, so if you know anyone who could help nearby, bring them with you!" _his friend Robin's voice sounded through the phone, sounding unlike her usually calm self.

"Robin? What's going on?" Luffy asked.

"_There's no time for questions, Officer-san! Just hurry!"_ Robin said.

No time for questions? That was weird. Robin loved asking and answering questions, as long as they weren't too personal.

"O-Okay! I'm coming!" Luffy said.

Robin hung up suddenly and Chopper looked up at him curiously.

"I gotta go, Chopper! See you later!" he said as he walked towards the door.

"Okay! Goodnight! I'm sleepy…" Chopper said as he shut the door.

Luffy hurried home to throw on his uniform haphazardly and get in his much hated cruiser and go to the fire station. Ace was still there, right? What was going on? Was Ace okay?

Suddenly he laughed at himself. Ace would hate it if Luffy was worrying about him that way. His brother was strong enough to handle himself.

As he got closer to the station, he realized smoke was coming from the area on a rather large scale, making the sky look even darker than it already was so late at night. He sped up a little.

When he finally arrived, there were _dozens_ of police cars parked around the building. About half of the men had their guns equipped and the other half of the officers were near the building.

He pulled out his cellphone for what seemed like the hundredth time that day and called his trusted friend Zoro. The phone rang for a few moments and Luffy was afraid that Zoro wouldn't answer the phone when the ringing stopped and his friend's voice came through the phone.

"_Luffy?"_

"Zoro!"

"_What is it? Something going on?"_ Zoro asked.

"Come to the fire station," Luffy said, no – ordered.

"_Huh? Okay," _ Zoro said.

Luffy guessed he was probably bored as hell and had nothing better to do than nap and/or drink rum, or he would've inquired further about it. He was grateful that he didn't ask anything, because he wasn't too sure of what was going on himself.

"ARGH!" suddenly a scream of pain came from the building and Luffy went to investigate.

"Luffy!" Coby ran up to his side before he could enter the building.

"What?" he asked, looking slightly annoyed.

"You can't go in there! If you go in there you'll burn, and even if you get to the men in there, you can't fight!" Coby said, his voice rushed and panicked.

"Huh? Why not? I'm strong," Luffy stated.

"You can't fight the man in there with your devil fruit powers!" Coby said as Luffy began to walk towards the building, "Wait!"

"Hey Coby, will you watch for Zoro? When he gets here, tell him I'm inside," Luffy said, ignoring Coby's pleas and entering the building.

He ran through the flames, remembering a time he had been caught in a fire as a young boy with Ace. Now that he thought about it, Ace was in the building too. His brother would be fine, right?

"_You can't fight the man in there with your devil fruit powers!"_ Coby's voice from just moments earlier went through his mind.

How would he fight without is devil fruit powers? Of course, he still had his jutte and a taser, but he wasn't sure how much damage he would be able to do with those.

Suddenly a nasty sounding laugh came from the space in front of him.

"Gehahaha! With this devil fruit, I can finally take over this city!"

"Thatch!" Ace and Marco's voices followed the nasty one and Luffy ran a little faster.

What he saw as he entered the room almost _scared_ him, and he wasn't one to get scared often.

Dead bodies lay scattered across the burning room, all looking barely recognizable from both the fire and whatever attack they had received.

"Luffy!" Ace called from the opposite side of the room, "What are you doing here?! Get out of here!"

His brother was sitting next to Thatch's body on the ground and Marco, who was looking at Thatch, eyes narrowed slightly in anger.

Luffy knew Thatch and Marco well. When his brother met them, they had been added to the little bond family circle, and so the two men were like uncles or something like that to Luffy. So of course it went unsaid that Luffy was infuriated to see one of them lying dead on the ground in their own puddle of blood.

In his rage, he ignored his brother's pleas for him to leave and looked at the big man near them. The big man was holding a knife, and seemed familiar. Luffy recognized him suddenly as one of the men from the picture on TV of the fire team, the one who had stood off to the side and smiled under that creepy black beard of his.

"Blackbeard old guy!" Luffy said, looking at the man in rage, "I'm gonna beat the crap out of you!"

"Blackbeard? That sounds nice! Gehahaha!" the man said, looking undisturbed by the threat of death in the young man's eyes.

"Don't fight him, Luffy!" Ace pleaded, fear in his eyes, "E-Even I can't fight him! Luffy, don't do it!"

Luffy looked at his brother in shock. There was never someone that Ace couldn't beat.

…Right?

**WOOOOHOOOOOOO~! This story is so much fun to write! Thank you for your awesome request, phonenix! I hope you love it! I decided to throw my own extra twists into the story… Hehehe! But it should still follow the request above ^^^**

**If you haven't read my other ongoing story "Star of Hope", I suggest you do so ASAP! Why? Because it's amazing, of course! xSHAMELESS ADVERTISINGx**

**Thanks for reading! :D Until next time, my lovely ducklings!**


	2. Fire, Fight, and Fright

**(Wow! I'm so happy! I'm getting better feedback on this story than my other one… But that's probably because the first one is mainly just a bunch of singing and stuff… XD BUT IT'S STILL AWESOME! AND THE EXCITING PART IS COMING SOON! :D**

**Thank you again, phonenix, for the awesome request! I love this story… :3**

**Disclaimer: *climbs out of grave after being shot by Luffy* Yeah, I don't own One Piece or any of its characters, and I don't even fully own the idea for this story [though part of it IS mine! :D]… But I still own the way the words flow here! And I own the title of this fanfic!)**

_Chapter 2 ~ Fire, Fight, and Fright_

The hot building ahead of him smoked and darkened the sky above him. A rushed call from his friend had brought him here, and though he wasn't a police officer, he was never one to pass up excitement.

"Zoro-san!" Coby called.

An officer friend of his with pink hair and purple rimmed glasses ran up to him.

"Where's Luffy?" Zoro asked, looking around him in hopes of finding his rubber friend.

Coby pointed to the burning fire station. "He went inside! Zoro-san, you-! Hey! _Zoro_!"

Zoro ran into the building without hesitation. After running around the building for a few minutes an running into a few dead ends, he came out the entrance.

"What the…?! How'd I get back here? Quit moving, stupid building! I've got important business with my friend in here!" Zoro said, getting aggravated and running back into the building.

The smoke was beginning to build up and it made it hard for him to breathe, so when he came back out through the entrance, he decided to take a few breaths and ask a few questions.

"Hey Coby!" Zoro called to his pink haired friend.

"Zoro-san! Why'd you run off like that?" Coby asked.

"To find Luffy! But this stupid building keeps moving around and I can't find-!" Zoro began as a scream erupted from the building.

"LUFFY!" Coby shouted.

The two men looked at the building worriedly and ran back in with Coby in the lead.

_***Inside the building where Luffy, Ace, Marco, and Blackbeard are***_

A loud battle cry filled the room as Luffy lunged at Blackbeard.

"Luffy, don't!" Ace called.

"I'll kill you!" Luffy screamed at Blackbeard, not heeding his brother's frantic warnings.

Blackbeard just grinned. The rubber officer had yet to learn of his overpowering devil fruit.

"_LUFFY!"_ Ace screamed as Luffy neared the enemy, _"PLEASE DON'T FIGHT HIM! LUFFY!"_

Luffy frowned, not wanting to disobey his brother, but still angry at the fat old man in front of him. He threw a punch, his trademark pistol, at the man's face expecting to see the man fall back in pain at the unexpected strength from a scrawny looking runt. So when fat old guy caught his punch barehanded and actually _hurt_ him with a punch of his own, he was very surprised.

"W-What?!" Luffy said.

Blackbeard threw him to the side and began walking towards Ace with a knife.

"_Don't touch him!" _Luffy shouted as he stood back up and ran towards the man again.

"_Luffy, don't do it!"_ Ace screamed even though he knew that his little brother wouldn't listen.

Blackbeard threw the knife at Ace. Luffy threw himself in between the object and his older brother without hesitation and it hit him in the shoulder.

"_LUFFY!"_ Ace shouted and tripped over Thatch as he ran towards Luffy.

With a small grunt of pain, Luffy jerked the knife out of his shoulder and threw it at the ground.

"Stay back," Luffy ordered.

Ace stopped for a moment, eyes wide.

"What are you saying, you idiot?! You can't fight him alone, and I won't let you!" Ace said.

Luffy grinned. "Okay!"

"Gehahahaha! I better be getting out of here soon before the police come," Blackbeard said as Ace threw one of his signature 'Fire Fist' attacks.

Blackbeard threw a hand in front of him and caught the attack, sucking it into the appendage.

"What the hell?!" Luffy said as he neared to throw another punch and the man dodged.

Ace's eyes widened as Blackbeard suddenly ran towards him with an attack at the ready. Though he would normally let a punch hit him, this man could suck away your devil fruit powers at contact and would make even a logia defenseless in that moment.

"Ace!" Luffy shouted, running in between the man in his brother.

Suddenly a new blaze of fire shot out of the man's hand and struck Luffy in the chest. The resulting cry of pain echoed off of the walls and shook Marco out of his temporary shock from his friend's – no, _brother's_ – death.

"_LUFFY!"_ Marco and Ace shouted in unison, voices drowned out by the pained scream.

Suddenly Blackbeard disappeared and Marco looked around for him, hungry for revenge.

"COME OUT, TRAITOR!" Marco shouted after Luffy had finally stopped screaming.

"Luffy… Luffy!" Ace said, shaking his now unconscious little brother in hopes of waking him up.

Zoro and Coby ran in at that moment, having finally found their way to their destination with the direction of Coby.

"Luffy-san!"

"Luffy!"

Both men ran to their injured friend and his brother in panic.

"Is he okay?" Coby asked, pulling out his walkie-talkie to request backup.

"Who did this?! I'll kill him!" Zoro said, drawing his swords and looking around wearily.

_***At Ace, Luffy, and Sabo's apartment***_

"I'm home!" Sabo said as he opened the door of their home, "Luffy, where are you?"

He walked to the kitchen, expecting to find his brother eating everything out of the fridge. No Luffy. He went to Luffy's bedroom; maybe he had taken any stolen food there to vacuum into that never ending stomach of his. No Luffy.

"That's weird. I thought he would be home…" Sabo said and scratched his head in confusion.

When he flopped down on the couch, he noticed Luffy's casual clothes laying haphazardly across the floor.

"What the…?" Sabo said, picking the clothes up and throwing them carelessly into Luffy's room, "His responsibility…"

A classical tune filled the room around him as his phone rang and he reached his hand into his work clothes pockets. He still hadn't changed into his own normal clothing yet.

"_Sabo? Sorry to call you in after you just got off work, but there's been an emergency at the fire station and we need you to go out," _a girl's voice said through the device.

"Uh, okay," Sabo said as he stood up and walked to the door, "Who is it?"

"…" Koala, the girl, stayed silent as Sabo stood and waited for his friend.

"Why do I have to go?" Sabo asked.

"_Everyone else was already detached and there were no other people to do the job," _Koala answered.

"For the same incident?! What's going on?!" Sabo asked.

He looked up to see that the sky was a few shades darker than it had been when he arrived at his home.

"_It's at the fire station. One of the volunteers set fire to the building and attacked multiple people. Most died, but a few of them were left injured," _Koala said.

"Ace…!" Sabo said.

Suddenly he remembered Luffy. For something as huge as this, it was likely his little brother had already been called to the scene, and when Luffy realized his brother was most likely in danger, he would go in himself.

"Koala! Who are we going out for?" Sabo asked.

"…_Hold your questions for a few. I'm almost there, okay?" _Koala said and hung up.

Sabo looked around anxiously as he waited for his friend to arrive, and was almost surprised when his friend showed up driving a bit faster than usual in an ambulance. He climbed into the vehicle as soon as it was stopped and Koala drove on with an almost nervous expression on her face.

"Who is it?" Sabo asked, sounding slightly impatient despite him being a usually calm person.

"…" Koala stayed silent but her face became more nervous and she began sweating a bit under the pressure.

"Koala! Tell me, now!" Sabo said, losing his temper.

"…" Koala didn't speak for a moment, looking back at her friend with sympathetic eyes, causing said friend to tense up, "It's your brother Luffy."

_***At the fire station***_

A large x-shaped gash covered Luffy's chest now, courtesy of Blackbeard. Of course, another ambulance had been called for along with all the other ones that had been called in for the other injured members of the fire squad. Their leader, Whitebeard, was currently out of town for business and therefore hadn't been there to prevent Blackbeard's rebellion.

"A-Ace…" Luffy whispered, barely able to speak.

Ace's head snapped down to look at his brother, who had suddenly woken from unconsciousness.

"Luffy!" Ace said.

Zoro and Coby also looked down at their injured friend quickly. Luffy tried to move but was stopped by Ace.

"It hurts…" Luffy whispered.

All three of the others looked at him, slightly shocked. Ace was the most surprised of the three men, not having heard Luffy speak this way for years, so childlike.

"It's okay Luffy," Ace said, slightly rocking his brother in an attempt to calm him down, but not so hard as to make his injuries hurt more than they already did.

Luffy's face was red and sweat was pouring off him from a fever, and the gash on his chest looked like it would scar. Ace got more upset as he thought about what Sabo's reaction would be to hearing of his brother's injury, or even worse, if Sabo had been sent in an ambulance. It was likely, considering how many ambulances they had already called. Zoro and Coby looked down worriedly for a moment at their friend's face before looking back to the streets around him for the ambulance that had been sent. They had gotten out of the burning station about half an hour ago, and the higher up officers had ordered a few of the lower officers to go back into the building to investigate it, since it had stopped burning mostly when Blackbeard left and the firefighters who hadn't been inside had a good chance to put out the raging fire.

The sound of another ambulance filled the area around them and they looked in the direction the sound was coming from hopefully. Before the vehicle had been able to stop, Sabo climbed out quickly and ran towards the four men.

"Luffy! Ace!" Sabo said as he ran over.

Koala came soon after with a stretcher and Ace helped Sabo lift their little injured brother onto the contraption. Zoro, Ace, Sabo, and Koala climbed back into the vehicle and drove to the hospital in a hurry. Coby had had to stay to help with investigation, though he had wanted to accompany the others.

"Luffy~!" a young voice called out to the injured rubber officer as they entered the hospital.

Chopper came running towards the group crying, dressed in his doctor's outfit and wearing his usual pink hat. The little reindeer had also been called into the frenzy, since so many had been injured in the incident, and therefore had been there to see a familiar green head of hair followed by his injured friend enter the hospital building.

"Chopper!" Zoro said, looking at his little reindeer friend with surprise.

He had forgotten momentarily about Chopper's occupation in the confusion of his friend's injury and therefore hadn't been expecting his little friend to be there. Chopper jumped into Zoro's arms crying like a baby and asked questions about Luffy.

"How'd this happen? Why's Luffy hurt? We need a doctor! Oh, wait, I'm a doctor!" Chopper said, jumping down to check on his friend.

After a few hours of waiting, Ace and Sabo had been allowed to enter Luffy's hospital room, since they were his brothers, leaving an angry Zoro outside in the waiting room. Soon enough, he fell asleep, which wasn't surprising if you considered the amount of naps the man took daily. He had called his other friends during the second hour of waiting, and they arrived to a sleeping Zoro and a full waiting room.

"Hey, Zoooooroooooo~!" Usopp said, lightly smacking his friends face.

Zoro grunted before smacking his friend's hand away and rubbing at his eyes.

"Huh? You're here already?" Zoro asked.

Nami and Sanji stood beside him, looking at him with aggravated expressions as they awaited details. Zoro had called them, telling them to come to the hospital, but hadn't given them an explanation because he had been called away from the phone for something.

"Well?" Sanji asked impatiently, "You gonna tell us what's going on, marimo?"

"Ah…" Zoro began, scratching his head, catching everyone's attention.

Usually the brute swordsman would be very blunt in his explanations unless it was something bad or he didn't want to talk at the moment.

"Zoro!" Nami called as a warning.

"It's Luffy. He got injured in a fight with some guy at the fire station," Zoro said.

A simultaneous gasp came from the others.

"How bad is it?! Is he okay?" Nami asked.

"Trust our stupid rubber idiot to go off and get hurt like this," Sanji said.

"Sanji-kun!" Nami warned, causing the blonde to look down at the ground and mutter a halfhearted apology.

"Who was he fighting?" Robin asked, appearing from behind along with their other friends Franky and Brook.

"Ah, umm…" Zoro said, trying to recall the name of the man he hadn't been able to meet, "I think it was Blackbeard or something like that."

"Blackbeard? What an un-_super _name!" Franky said.

The doors opened and a young blonde nurse came out.

"Conis-chan~!" Sanji called to the nurse.

Conis looked at them for a moment and walked over to them.

"Hello everyone! I was told to inform you that Luffy is awake now and you are allowed to visit him, but you should probably go a few at a time," Conis said.

"I would like to go see Luffy-san, ma'am," Brook said politely before adding, "May I see your panties?"

Nami whacked the skeleton on the head, shouting that this wasn't the time for his stupid requests.

"Ah, s-sorry," Brook said as he picked himself up from the floor and dusted off his suit jacket.

"I would like to go as well," Robin stated and stood next to Brook.

"Umm, if Robin's going, I want to go too…" Nami said as she hooked her arms to Robin's left arm and stood next to her.

The small group walked away, leaving the other four men to converse with each other rather awkwardly.

_***In Luffy's hospital room***_

Even though Luffy was awake, it didn't seem much different than it had before he woke. The room remained quiet, and though the brothers were relieved that their brother was awake, there was something unsettling in their younger brother's face that made them worry. The usual grin that they had hoped to see was gone, replaced by a more thoughtful face. His eyebrows were furrowed and his eyes a bit distant, and a small frown was in the place they had wanted to see a face-splitting grin.

The door opened, startling all of the rooms occupants as a few of Luffy's good friends walked into the room.

"Luffy!" Nami said.

Luffy looked up at her when he heard his name, giving her the same thoughtful face, stopping her in her tracks for a moment. Robin, who had just driven in from the police station after making many urgent calls to higher up officers to gather information, looked at Luffy with her usual face before dragging Nami over to sit in one of the chairs in the room. Brook followed suit, sitting in the chair next to Robin in the corner furthest from Luffy's bed, slightly shaken by the unusual look on their friend's face.

"Are you feeling any better, Luffy-san?" Robin asked, breaking the silence in the room as Chopper, who was Luffy's doctor at the moment, scribbled down notes on a clipboard furiously.

"Huh?" Luffy jerked his head up to look at Robin. "Uh, yeah…"

He looked back down at the blanket for a moment before reaching up to his head.

"Ah! My hat! Where's my hat?" Luffy said, looking around frantically before spotting it on the stand beside the bed and plopping it on his head.

A small grin placed itself on his face and he looked up at everyone happily. Chopper, who had just finished writing notes, gave Luffy a careful hug and smiled wide.

"Luffy!" Chopper said happily as he hugged his friend, causing Luffy's grin to widen as he hugged his little friend lightly.

"Yo, Chopper!" Luffy said.

Sabo and Ace sat to the side, slightly startled as his other three friends stood to walk over to their brother's bedside.

"We were all worried! Don't do that again!" Nami scolded after Chopper finally let go of Luffy.

"Yohohoho! When I heard you were injured I almost had a heart attack! Though I don't have a heart to stop! Yohohohoho~!" Brook said, happy his friend was feeling well.

"I hadn't received any reports of your injury from the station, so I was also quite surprised," Robin said.

Luffy's grin slowly turned into his usual face-splitting smile as he talked with his friends and brothers for a few minutes. When Zoro, Usopp, Sanji, and Franky entered the room, Luffy's grin made them feel more at ease than when the first group had entered, and all five boys were talking excitedly within seconds.

All seemed to be getting well for Luffy at the moment, or so it seemed…

**(FUAHAHAHAHAHAHA~! Okay, I'm honestly not very good at writing long chapters…. I apologize sincerely for this. I wanted to get this chapter out soon so that I could work a bit on Star of Hope. I don't like switching between writing chapters, so I like to finish one chapter completely before I move on to something else… Please forgive me! *bows***

**Hehehe… So, how'd you like it? Good, right? *laughs evilly and throws unicorns at the wall because I can* O-O ****yeah, I know… I suck at writing fight scenes…**

**Welp! Until next time, my dear fans…. *evil laughing fades*)**


	3. Dreams, Pasts, and Hospital Rooms

**(Ahhh… I've been feeling a bit stressed out lately, so I'm sorry if that ends up making my writing quality go down. But you'll still love it, right? :D *rainbows pour like waterfalls out of my ears* **

**I'm so happy! I've gotten over half the amount of favorites and follows for two chapters of this story than I have for my other one! I guess that's probably because this story is a bit more intense and serious… Oh well! *shrugs***

**It'll be a few extra days until I can get the next chapter of Star of Hope out, for those of you who also read that story, because I decided to change the story from where it's going because of a good suggestion from a friend. So, I hope you love it when it comes! Now then, let's go!**

**Disclaimer: I own next to nothing here. One Piece is Oda's and the story request belongs to phonenix. I just own my extra twists to the story and my words. Okay, stop reading the disclaimer now…. You're still reading it?! Why aren't you reading the chapter? Isn't that what you came here for? …. -.- Okay, Seriously? READ THE CHAPTER ALREADY! XD)**

_Chapter 3 ~ Dreams, Pasts, and Hospital Rooms_

By the time Luffy's friends had left, it was dark outside and his brothers had already fallen asleep from stress and boredom. Though Ace and Sabo liked Luffy's eccentric friends, they wanted to let Luffy talk with them and get some rest. The two men slept one of the few chairs in the room as Luffy stared up at the ceiling. Ace's loud snores and the hospital monitors were the only noise in the room, and though normally it would be easy to drift to sleep, Luffy was beginning to wonder if it was the right choice. What if Blackbeard came again? Even if he _was_ injured, he would readily jump out of his hospital bed and get himself killed for them if that was what it took.

"_No… I'm just over-reacting…"_ Luffy thought as his eyelids grew heavy, _"Yeah, they'll be fine."_

And then he fell asleep.

∙∙∙∙∙_**In Luffy's "Dream"**_

"Hey, Luffy!"

"Huh?" Luffy said, snapping out of a daze.

"Don't do that! That's not like you! It's weird," a ticked off looking red-head said.

Suddenly she tapped a funky looking bracelet on her wrist and raised an eyebrow when he looked at her like she was crazy.

"What's that thing?" Luffy said, leaning in closer to look at it.

"HUH?!" Nami screamed, "SANJI-KUN! YOU KICKED HIM TOO HARD! HE FORGOT WHAT A LOG POSE IS!"

Luffy tilted his head to the side in confusion. "Kicked? When? Log Pose? Huh? Huh?"

Nami lifted two fingers in front of his face.

"How many fingers am I holding up?" Nami asked.

"Huh? Two, why?" Luffy said as he looked at her in confusion.

Little Chopper ran up to him suddenly and began doing a check up on him.

"Are you okay, Luffy? How are you feeling?" Chopper asked as he pressed something to his chest.

"I feel fine… Wait, fine?" Luffy replied suddenly looking down at his chest at the huge x-shaped scar that sat there, "WHOA! What the…?!"

He jumped up and looked around, accidently knocking the little doctor down as he looked around.

"Where am I? What's going on?" Luffy practically shouted.

"AHHHH! D-D-Does he have amnesia or s-something?" a frightened Usopp asked from behind the mast of a ship.

After a few moments of close inspection, he realized where he was. "Sunny?"

"Phew! So he _doesn't _have amnesia…" Usopp sighed as he emerged from his spot behind the mast.

"But… Why?" Luffy said, looking around and then back down to his chest, "Is this here?"

Usopp suddenly hid back behind the mast and Chopper tackled him.

"Whoa! What?!" Luffy said as he was knocked to the ground.

"I need to do tests on your brain!" Chopper shouted at him.

"What? Why?" Luffy asked.

"Idiot Captain, I didn't hit you _that_ hard," Sanji said, emerging from the kitchen.

"Tch! Leave it to the stupid lovecook to give our captain amnesia," Zoro said from a spot by the nearby railing.

"Shut up, stupid mosshead!" Sanji shouted back.

"Make me!" Zoro said, beginning to sound like a kid.

"I will!" Sanji ran towards Zoro in a blocked attempt to kick him.

"Will you guys _shut up?!_ We have a _serious_ problem here!" Nami shouted as she hit both heads and shot them to the ground.

She stomped angrily away from the two and towards Chopper and Luffy, mumbling about idiot muscle-brains. Once she plopped herself down on the grass next to them, Chopper felt safe to continue his testing, asking Luffy random questions about himself such as his favorite food (MEAT~!), name (Monkey D. Luffy, duh~! Who else would I be?), and age (19). Brook and Franky had to convince Usopp that Luffy wasn't insane, and Robin just sat to the side quietly reading a book. After a few more random 'duh' questions, Chopper's face grew solemn and said there was one more question left.

"D-D-Do you…" Chopper began, placing his hand on Luffy's chest scar, "Remember… How you got this?"

The air around them became quiet and Luffy looked at Chopper blankly.

"Of course I do!" Luffy said, smiling a big toothy grin before looking down at the x and mumbling, "But I don't know how it already scarred over…"

"Huh?" Chopper asked, "But this wasn't recent, Luffy, it's from two years ago!"

"No, I got it today!" Luffy said, placing his hand over his chest.

Everyone gaped at him as his stomach growled and he seemed to get agitated.

"Why am I out of the hospital anyways? What's going on-!" Luffy began as he suddenly remembered something important, "Oh yeah! I fell asleep! That makes more sense! I'm in a dream!"

The multiple pairs of eyes around him widened and they all looked at him like he had two heads – even Robin, who was rarely shocked.

"What?" he asked, looking at them confusedly, "I'm hungry… This sure is a weird dream!"

Two strong hands planted themselves on Luffy's shoulders and shook him hard.

"What are you talking about, Luffy? This isn't just some dream!" Zoro shouted, surprising Luffy more than anyone.

"But I remember falling asleep! I was in the hospital with Ace and Sabo! And you guys all left an hour before I fell asleep!" Luffy said, shaking Zoro's hands off and then looking at his shoulder, "Oh, the stab wound is gone too! Stupid Blackbeard guy…"

"Sabo?" Robin asked, shutting the book she had been pretending to read as she listened to all of the screaming, "You've never mentioned him to us before."

"Yohohohoho! I would enjoy an explanation about something right about now!" Brook said.

"Yeah, I'm _super_ confused!" Franky said, tossing his hands into the air.

Luffy furrowed his brow at them all and pouted. "How could you guys forget about Sabo? He's my brother, just like Ace!"

"HAH?!" everyone screamed in unison at their friend's statement.

"Wait… He also said he was with Ace…" Nami said, still eyeing Luffy suspiciously.

"Ah! I know! It must be a stress related memory loss!" Chopper said, suddenly tackling Luffy and dragging him to the infirmary.

"Wait~! Nooooo! What's going on? Nothing's wrong with me~!" Luffy said as he was dragged away and the infirmary door shut behind the two.

"I need to do some serious tests on you, Luffy! I believe your brain has replaced your memories with something less stressful so that you won't be so upset over-!" Chopper stopped suddenly, clamping his hands over his mouth.

"Huh? Be upset over what?" Luffy asked.

"It might be better if we don't tell you right now. If your memories are replaced, then there must be a reason…" Chopper said, looking at Luffy's scar sadly.

Luffy pouted as Chopper did test after test. The little reindeer got more and more frustrated with each test, eventually getting to the point where Chopper threw one of his beloved medical books at the bed beside where Luffy sat.

"Whoa!" Luffy said, barely dodging the book, which had bounced off of the bed and towards his face, "What's wrong Chopper?"

"I can't find anything!" Chopper said.

"Isn't that a good thing?" Luffy asked.

"Well… In a way, it is… But at the same time, if nothing is wrong, I can't restore your memories!" Chopper said.

"Ohhhhh… But my memories are fine! Why should you restore-!" Luffy began, suddenly feeling very tired, "…them…?"

"LUFFY!" Chopper shouted as Luffy lost consciousness.

Luffy laid on the bed, only sleeping.

"What the…?" Chopper said as the infirmary door swung open and his worried shipmates ran into the room.

"Chopper, what's wrong?" Zoro asked, watching their sleeping captain snore away on the infirmary bed.

"He, he just fell asleep!" Chopper said, still startled by the suddenness of what had happened.

"Just fell asleep? Why?" Usopp asked.

"I don't know…" Chopper said.

Suddenly Luffy woke back up.

"Huh? What? Why am I in the infirmary?" Luffy asked, looking at his shocked friends curiously.

"You don't remember?" Chopper asked.

"Uh… I fell asleep on the deck, and then… And then…" Luffy said and his eyes suddenly widened to a comical level, "I SAW ACE AND SABO!"

"Huh?!" everyone said as Luffy explained what had happened.

∙∙∙∙∙_**Back In The Hospital Room**_

Luffy woke up back in the hospital room.

"Wha…?" Luffy said as he pried his eyes open to the bright ceiling lights.

"Luffy?" Ace asked, sounding worried.

"Huh?" Luffy asked as he sat up quickly, "OW!"

Sudden pain shot through his shoulder from the motion and he groaned in pain as he lowered himself back down on the bed. Then he noticed something; the wet streaks down his face.

"What?" he said, bringing his hand up to his face slowly to wipe tears he didn't remember shedding off his skin.

"Luffy, are you okay?" Ace asked.

"Uh, yeah…" Luffy said.

"Do you remember what just happened?" Sabo asked.

"What? What happened? Did Blackbeard come back while I was having that weird dream?" Luffy asked, suddenly sounding angry.

"No, no!" Ace said, having to push Luffy, who had shot up again out of anger, back down into the comfort of the bed.

"Weird dream? Do explain, please," Sabo said, looking at Luffy curiously.

"Uh, I was on a pirate ship I dream about a lot – the Thousand Sunny – but it was all weird! Everyone kept saying weird stuff!" Luffy said, sounding like a little kid.

"'Weird stuff'? Like what?" Ace said.

"Well, they said my scar – er…" he looked down at the bandages covering his chest, "My wound was from two years ago! But they wouldn't say anything else about that. And they acted all funky when I mentioned you guys! And they kept telling me I lost my memories when my memories are still in my head!"

Sabo and Ace both frowned.

"I don't know…" Sabo said, looking at Ace worriedly, "Do you think it might have anything to do with…?"

"Maybe…" Ace said, shaking his head and sighing in frustration, "But that was way too weird."

"What was?" Luffy asked, tilting his head to the side curiously.

"Well…" Sabo said, looking hesitantly at Ace, "Should we tell him?"

"I guess so…" Ace said.

Luffy just waited, looking at them with an innocent face unlike the one they had just seen mere minutes ago.

"When you woke up just now, you looked at us both like we were ghosts," Sabo began, nodding to Ace to finish the rest, who, though agitated, accepted.

"And then when we asked you if you were feeling okay, you began bawling and saying that we were supposed to be dead…" Ace finished.

Luffy's eyes widened in shock. _He_ said that? Why? His brows furrowed and his face turned red as he tried to think of a reason why he would say that.

"_Ah! I know! It must be a stress-related memory loss!"_

He remembered his little dream-friend's words and his eyes widened.

"He said it was stress-related!" Luffy shouted out suddenly, confusing the other two men in the room.

"What?" Ace asked.

"Well, if you died in _any_ world, I would be really upset," Luffy began, causing Ace to look away as his face turned red.

"But if you died in that world two years ago," Sabo continued for Luffy, "It would make sense that _our_ Luffy wouldn't remember, it would explain why they acted weird when our names were mentioned, and it would explain why the Luffy that _we_ saw said we were dead and didn't know where he was."

"Wait a minute! Are you trying to say that two Luffy's are going back and forth between each other's heads or something?!" Ace half-screamed.

Sabo looked a bit shocked as well.

"Well, it doesn't make much sense but…" Sabo said, directing his attention to Luffy, "It's about as confusing as the concept of Devil Fruits, right? If those things are real, why can't something as weird as this happen?"

Luffy stared at random stuff and played with small objects near his bed in boredom, not even listening anymore.

"Luffy! You should really pay attention when we're talking about important things involving you!" Ace said, lightly knocking Luffy's head with his fist.

"Huh? Why?" Luffy said.

"…"

"It's an adventure, Luffy! If you don't listen to us you'll miss out on lots of cool things!" Sabo said, filling in Ace's part.

Luffy's eyes sparkled with happiness and he looked at his brother in awe. "Really?!"

"Yeah, so pay attention, okay?" Sabo said, nudging Ace's arm with his own, "You explain it – _simply!_"

"Uhhh… Okay," Ace said, aggravated that he had to explain the concept that Sabo had come up with, "Well… Luffy, basically you're just going into another Luffy's head and life."

"Wow! That sounds so cool!" Luffy exclaimed.

"Uh, yeah, except the other Luffy's brothers are dead," Ace said, causing Sabo to jam his side, "OW! What was that for?"

"Look!" Sabo said, pointing at Luffy's face.

The poor boy looked horrified beyond words.

"You mean, I was in a world where you guys are dead?!" Luffy practically shouted at them.

"See what you did?! IDIOT!" Sabo said as he whacked Ace's head.

"Owwww~!" Ace whined, "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to! I wasn't thinking!"

"You two idiots never think," Sabo sighed.

"Ughhhhh~! I'm so hungry~! I want some… meat…" Luffy said as he felt himself drifting off to sleep suddenly.

When he felt sleep tearing at his vision, he became terrified. What if he woke up in that world again, where his brothers were dead? He felt sorry for his other self, but he didn't want to take his place.

"N-No…" Luffy said as his eyes slipped shut.

∙∙∙∙∙_**Pirate "Dream" World**_

"WAH!" Luffy said, bolting upright off the ground.

Pain suddenly shot through his head and he lifted his hand to a large bump.

"Owwww~!" Luffy said as he carefully rubbed the bump on his head.

"Luffy! Don't do that again, darn it! Stay away from Robin-chan with those dirty hands of yours!" Sanji suddenly screamed at him.

"What?" Luffy looked around and realized he was back on the Sunny, "I'm back here again?"

"Back here…? You mean…!" Chopper gasped.

"Oh yeah! I'm another world's Luffy! Nice to meetcha!" Luffy said.

"Uh… What? Another world?" Usopp asked.

"I was beginning to come to a similar conclusion," Robin said, pulling out a book they were all familiar with.

"Ah!" Nami said, taking the book from Robin, "You mean it's like an alternate dimension kind of thing?"

"Oh Robin-chan~! You're smart _and_ beautiful~!" Sanji swooned as Robin nodded at the red-haired navigator.

"Oh yeah! This is the world where Ace and Sabo are dead, right…" Luffy said solemnly.

The room was silent for a few moments before Robin chuckled.

"Not quite," she said.

"Huh?" Luffy asked.

"Sabo is still alive in this world as well," Robin answered, causing everyone to gape at her.

"Really?!" Luffy asked, "Where? Where is he?"

"I'm afraid I can't tell you that…" Robin said, "But I would be more than glad to contact him for you."

"Really? You will?" Luffy asked, suddenly jumping up and hugging her, "Thanks!"

_Kick!_

"Ouch!" Luffy said, nursing a new bump on his head, "What was that for?"

"KEEP YOUR DIRTY HANDS OFF ROBIN-CHAN, STUPID RUBBER IDIOT!" Sanji yelled.

"Oh! You're like my Sanji!" Luffy said, grinning like an idiot.

"Your Sanji?" Usopp asked.

"Now that I think about it… Our worlds are a lot different, right?" Nami asked.

"Kinda," Luffy responded.

"Are you a pirate, Luffy-san?" Brook asked.

"Nope! I'm a police officer! I get to chase down weird guys!" Luffy said, causing everyone in the room to gape at him.

"You're…" Zoro began.

"A marine?!" Usopp finished.

"Huh? No. What's a marine? I'm just a cop," Luffy said.

"A cop?" Nami asked.

"Yeah!" Luffy said.

"Wow… I never imagined someone like _you _being a police officer…" Usopp said.

"Cool! Do you chase down bad guys? Is it dangerous?" Chopper asked excitedly, eyes sparkling.

"Yeah! And it's really fun, at least until it involves my friends," Luffy said, bringing his hand up to his chest.

"Do… Do you have that scar in your world?" Nami asked carefully.

"Uh… Sort of," Luffy said, pouting as he tried to think of an explanation.

"What do you mean by 'sort of'?" Nami asked.

"Well, right now it's still a bad wound, and I'm in the hospital," Luffy answered, suddenly feeling sorry for his other self.

"Really?!" Chopper said worriedly, "I wish I could treat you, even if you're a different Luffy…"

"You are! Well, your other self is… You are? I don't know," Luffy said confusedly.

"I am?" Chopper said happily.

"Yep!" Luffy laughed.

"Now that I think of it, what are we like in your world?" Zoro asked.

"Hmm… Basically the same," Luffy said.

"You said you're a cop, correct?" Robin asked, making Luffy nod, "Then what occupations do we have?"

Luffy pointed at Zoro. "Bounty hunter."

Nami. "Sneaky restaurant owner and waitress."

Usopp. "My cool sidekick."

Sanji. "A really good chef."

Chopper. "A doctor."

Robin. "A detective."

Franky. "A carpenter."

Brook. "A cool famous musician."

Nami's eyebrow twitched and Usopp grinned proudly.

"That sounds awfully familiar," Zoro said.

"A few of us are still the same, huh?" Sanji said, looking at Chopper.

"Yeah!" Chopper said.

Luffy was suddenly shot to the ground by a raging fist.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'SNEAKY'?" Nami growled.

"Ahahaha! You really are all the same!" Luffy laughed.

"That's _super_ great! I wish we could meet ourselves!" Franky said.

"Yohohohoho! SOUL KING~!" Brook said as he pulled out his guitar and started playing a random song.

"Oh, oh! I know this one! It's… It's, um…" Luffy said, "Oh yeah! It's 'Bone to be Wild', right? Usopp told me when we were playing cards earlier today!"

"Yohohoho! Correct!" Brook said happily as he finished playing the song.

"Earlier today you were playing cards with Usopp? That means you got that injury today, correct?" Robin said, pointing at Luffy's scar.

He looked down at x-shaped scar and smiled. "Yeah!"

"So… You're okay?" Chopper asked, remembering how he had been told that Jinbei had helped Luffy from giving up.

"Mm!" Luffy said, nodding happily, "Actually, I'm better than okay! I'm happy! As long as that stupid beard fatso doesn't come back…"

"Stupid bearded fatso?" Zoro asked.

"Yeah! Stupid Blackbeard…" Luffy said, suddenly remembering Thatch and frowning.

"May I ask what happened?" Robin asked.

"Uh, yeah, sure," Luffy said, looking down at the scar still.

"…"

"So…? What happened?" Usopp asked.

"Huh? Oh! There was a _huge_ fire at the fire station where Ace works, and I got called to help capture the Blackbeard fatso guy, but when I got there I ran in-" expected of the reckless boy "-and I found Blackbeard attacking Ace and Marco and… Thatch… But I was too late to save him…" Luffy frowned as he said the last part.

"What else?" Nami asked.

"Oh yeah, so I fought the guy but when Ace tried to hit him, he sucked in fire from Ace and then he shot it at my chest! And then Zoro and Coby came and Blackbeard disappeared," he finished.

"Oh, so you saved Ace?" Zoro asked.

"Yup!" Luffy said.

"…"

The room was silent as they took in all of the information they had exchanged.

"So… The Ace here is… Dead, right?" Luffy asked, frowning.

"Y-Yeah…" the pirates answered quietly.

"How'd it happen?" Luffy asked.

Everyone looked at each other, silently wondering if they should tell him everything. Zoro seemed to think it didn't necessarily matter; after all, this Luffy's Ace was still alive.

"It was the world government. Akainu," Zoro said.

Luffy's face scrunched up at the name. "You mean that wrinkly old guy? I don't even want to try and imagine that…"

"He saved you. And you got that scar-" Zoro pointed at Luffy's chest, "-after Ace died."

"Oh…" Luffy said, now feeling really _really_ bad for his other self.

In fact, how was his other self still even_ sane_?

"ZORO! BE MORE SUBTLE! BE MORE SENSITIVE!" Nami yelled as she whacked his head.

"YEAH!" Chopper said, jumping on the swordsman's back and tackling him to the ground.

"It's okay!" Luffy said, smile back on his fight.

"S-See?" Zoro choked out from under Chopper.

Chopper shrunk down into his usual form and jumped off Zoro's back, satisfied.

"So… Now what?" Usopp asked.

"Dunno!" Luffy said.

"Wait… If people that are dead here are alive in your world, then would other people we know that died be alive?" Nami asked, thinking of her adoptive mother.

"I don't know!" Luffy said.

"Nami-san…" Sanji said quietly.

Nojiko had told him and Usopp about Nami's past, and it wasn't very surprising that she would ask something like that, but it still didn't make him feel happy about it. He glanced over at Zoro to see a contemplative look on his face as well, and it was the same with nearly every face he saw in the room. He had lost his former 'family' on the cruise ship he lived on as a child, but nobody specific came to mind, and though he didn't feel happy at all about Zeff losing his leg for him, it wasn't like his leg was a _person_.

"Maybe…" Nami began, "We could ask you?"

Her voice was quiet but could be heard clearly through the silence of the room.

"Hm?" Luffy asked.

"There are people that some of us-" she gestured to her crewmates, "-have lost… And I'm curious if any of them are alive in your world…"

Of course, Nami didn't know any of their pasts for sure, but she knew at least one of them had to have lost someone before. It wasn't an uncommon thing for people to die, after all, no matter how horrible it was.

"Uh, well, I can't really answer that…" Luffy said, rubbing the back of his neck.

"I don't think Luffy-san can tell us of dead people he knows nothing about, Nami-san," Brook said, causing Robin to nod in agreement.

"Correct," Robin said.

"Oh yeah, that makes sense," Nami said, planting her face in her hand, "Well, Luffy, if we ask you about someone specific could you answer?"

"Uh, I think so," Luffy said, yawning, "But… I might need to… take a nap first…?"

Suddenly he felt tired as heck.

"Ah, darn it…" he grumbled as Chopper ran up to him and forced his head back into the pillow.

"Bye bye!" Chopper said happily as Luffy's eyes slipped shut.

"G'night…"

**(Yes~! I did it! This is the official longest fanfic chapter I have written so far O-O Though I plan to write longer ones in the future… XD**

**I ****hope**** know you loved it so follow and fave! FOLLOW AND FAVE! *shoves computer in your face threateningly***

**Welp! I'm seriously going to bed… Goodnight all! And if it's morning time while you are reading this, hi! :D And bye! *bows and backs away slowly*)**


	4. Brothers and Potato Chips

**(e.e I'm so tired right now… But I feel like writing! So be happy! In all honesty, I'm surprised I haven't pulled a Zoro yet and decided to sleep somewhere random around the house. I discovered I can actually focus a bit more on what I'm doing when I'm a little tired, so I don't mind holding off my nap for long enough to try and get this chapter done… Oh my god I wish I had a cookie right now [that totally wasn't random].**

**Disclaimer: If you REALLY think I own One Piece, you have research to be done. I honestly don't understand why I should have to tell you I don't own the story. THIS IS **_**FANFICTION**_**, so the story **_**obviously**_** doesn't belong to me!)**

_Chapter 4 ~ Brothers and Potato Chips_

"My body feels like crap…" Luffy groaned as he slowly woke up in his counterpart's hospital bed, "Chopper~! I'm hungry~!"

Little did he know that he was back in the hospital room he had been in before, covered in bandages and tired as heck from the annoying pain medications they gave him. He slowly opened his eyes to a white roof.

"Huh?" Luffy said as he tried to open his eyes and sit up.

Two firm hands pushed him back down into the soft bed, causing his eyes to open a bit quicker. Considering how tired he felt, it was funny how wide his eyes were opened within the next few seconds when someone suddenly pulled him into a hug. When he was released, he looked at the giver with the most confused face in the world.

"Where am I?" Luffy said, looking around, "Who are you? Why'd you hug me? Are you okay? Is there any food around here? You look familiar. Are you one of the weird guys Nami talked to?"

"Weird guys? I don't see anything weird about me…" the blonde in front of him said, looking down at his clothes.

"You have a funny top hat. It reminds me of someone I used ta' know," Luffy said as he noticed a covered plate of food by the bed.

Sabo raised an eyebrow. So he wasn't close to Luffy as an adult? Or was he possibly dead in this Luffy's world too, like Ace probably was? Or maybe he didn't wear his top hat? No, Luffy would still recognize his face, right?

"You're a pirate, correct?" Sabo asked, though he already knew the answer.

"Mm!" Luffy nodded in agreement.

"Would you like to know where you are?" Sabo asked.

Luffy looked at the blonde curiously as he ate food off of the plate at his bedside.

"You're in a different world," Sabo answered, causing Luffy to practically choke on his food.

"What?!" Luffy said as he finally finished coughing and was able to swallow, "But I need to be in _my_ world so I can find the One Piece and be the pirate king!"

"Pirate king?" Sabo asked curiously.

"Yeah! I'm going to be the king of the pirates!" Luffy stated like it was the simplest thing in the world.

Sabo stared at Luffy for nearly a whole minute after that before realizing how quiet it had become.

"You really are just like my brother," Sabo laughed.

"Huh? Brother?" Luffy said, "Me?"

Sabo looked at him oddly for a moment until he realized he must not have realized he wasn't really in his own body.

"Well, I guess technically you _are_ my brother because you're in his body," Sabo said, "And you're another… Well, another _him_, basically."

"What?" Luffy said, looking down at his body.

It was a little shocking to him, really. He had as many bandages as he did after… _that_ incident two years ago. He frowned at the bandages, then at the blonde.

"Why am I all bandaged up?" Luffy asked.

"Because you-!" Sabo began.

"Because I…? What'd I do?" Luffy asked like a child who needed to hear the rest of a bedtime story.

Sabo frowned. Would it really be okay to tell this other Luffy that he had saved Ace? Then again, Ace would be coming back from the vending machines downstairs soon anyway unless he had fallen asleep somewhere.

"You… Saved your brother. Well, the other you did, that is," Sabo said, looking at the other Luffy cautiously.

Luffy's face was blank for a moment when suddenly his eyes sparkled.

"Really?! Was it a cool story? Who's the brother?" Luffy asked.

Since he obviously couldn't recognize Sabo, he might've assumed this Luffy's family was entirely different from his own. What would he do when he discovered it was actually the brother that had died in his world?

"Uh, well, actually… The story is kind of stupid. You barged right into a burning building and named a criminal," Sabo said.

"Named a criminal? Who? Is he cool?" Luffy asked.

Sabo's face scrunched up. "No way. Not cool at all. His name is Marshall D. Teach, but _you_ just _had_ to give him a nickname."

"Marshall D. Beach?" Luffy asked, tilting his head in confusion, "What's the nickname? I bet it was awesome if I made it!"

"You nicknamed him Blackbeard, and his name is _Teach_, not Beach, doofus," Sabo said.

When he looked over, he realized he must've said something wrong. Every drop of color was gone from the young man's face and his eyes looked blank and empty.

"H-Hey, are you okay?" Sabo asked, waving a hand in front of Luffy's face.

Suddenly the boy looked down at his chest and the bandages that obscured it from view. He didn't even know what to think. He was suddenly in some other world, stuck in a hospital bed, talking to some weird blonde who claimed another _him_ had met Blackbeard. Anger and confusion bounced around in him as he tried to think of what he should do.

"You, uh… My brother is with your crew right now…" Sabo said, having not known what to say.

"Huh?" Luffy said, looking up at him.

"It seems you guys switch places each time you fall asleep now," Sabo said, happy they had found a new subject that wasn't causing his brother's color to drain from his face.

Even if it was another world's Luffy, it was still Luffy, which meant it was still his brother. Speaking of Luffy, the boy was staring intently at his face now, and it was starting to creep him out.

"Are you… uh… okay?" Sabo asked.

"What's your name?" Luffy asked after a few moments of silence, "You know mine so I wanna know yours."

Sabo smiled. "My name is Sabo."

Okay, so maybe that was a bad decision? He didn't know, but he was sure _something_ was wrong when Luffy's eyes filled with tears and stared at him like he had two heads.

"Um…" Sabo didn't know _what _to do now, other than hope this wouldn't be the moment Ace walked into the room since it would probably cause the tears built up in Luffy's eyes to spill out.

But he wasn't a very lucky person.

"Hey, Sabo, I got you a canned coffee!" Ace said as he walked into the room, oblivious to the fact that Luffy was awake at the moment, "I don't see _how_ you drink this crap though…"

"Ace…?"

"Huh?" Ace said, looking down at his brother's hospital bed and nearly dropping the multiple things he was holding as he saw tears spill down Luffy's face.

"H-Hey! It's okay!" Sabo said, pulling him into another hug, which was accepted by the little rubber man as tears ran messily down his face.

"I-I…!" Luffy said.

"We know…" Ace said, making the Sabo and Luffy hug into a group hug between all three brothers.

"Luffy, we already talked with the other Luffy when he came back from your ship the first time," Sabo said.

"We tried to figure out the situation, and… My other self died, right?" Ace asked, frowning, "Is that true?"

Luffy sniffled a little bit and buried his head down in the crack between Sabo and Ace's shoulders.

"It was… It was my fault…" Luffy whispered, causing both men to look down at their little brother curiously.

"How so?" Ace asked.

He received no answer except for a few muffled sobs from where the boy had moved his head even further down between them.

"Idiot!" Sabo said to Ace, "You can't ask him something like that! I'm sure it wasn't his fault anyway."

"Yes it was, it was my fault," Luffy said into their shoulders, "It was my fault…"

Ace and Sabo, not knowing what to say, began rubbing circles on Luffy's head and back to calm him down like they had when their Luffy was a kid. But Ace couldn't take it and looked back down at Luffy. He _had_ to know how he died! Why would Luffy blame himself?

"What happened?" Ace said, causing his raven-headed brother to look up at him teary-eyed.

"Ace!" Sabo said.

"I want to know! How'd I die?" Ace said, looking into his little brother's eyes with determination.

"Ace! Stop it!" Sabo said when Luffy pulled his head away from their shoulders and wiped his face off with his arm.

"I'll tell you," Luffy said, though his eyes were full of tears again and he wiped at them furiously.

Ace smirked at Sabo. Their brother was a strong person no matter what world he came from, even if he _was_ a crybaby.

"Akainu…" Luffy began with a sad and distant look in his eyes.

"Akainu?" Sabo and Ace said at the same time.

Akainu was currently a high status admiral in the strongest government in the world, though none of the brothers in this world had met him, and was even hotter than fire; literally. The story already seemed like it would go horribly.

"I went to break you out of Impel Down-" worst prison in both worlds, apparently, "-because Blackbeard turned you in… And I had to fight a lot of people in there so I was too late to get to you before they took you to the Government HQ…"

"Government HQ? What kind of bad guy _was_ I?" Ace said.

"You were awesome!" Luffy said, making Ace smirk.

"On with the story! We can hear of my awesomeness later," Ace said, impatient to hear how he had died.

"Oh, yeah. So they took you to Government HQ to kill you, but we got there before they did that and broke you out with the wax guy, Mr. Tree or something like that, and then when we were about to escape, they said bad stuff about Whitebeard-ossan and you went to fight them…" Luffy said.

"Of course you did something reckless, stupidhead," Sabo said as he knocked his fist lightly on Ace's head.

Ace frowned at his blonde brother and swatted his hand away, before looking at Luffy. It sounded like something he would do. Apparently he was close to Oyaji in _both_ worlds, which made him smile. After a few moments of silence, Luffy continued.

"But I had already been fighting a lot and my body stopped listening to me, so when Akainu came after me…" Luffy stopped as he felt tears in his eyes again.

He didn't like crying so much in front of his brothers, even if they actually weren't _his_. They felt the same to be around.

"Isn't Akainu a devil fruit user? Like, uh… What fruit was it again?" Ace asked.

"Magma," Sabo answered, "Jeez, you're an idiot Ace."

"Hey! Take that back!" Ace said.

Sabo answered by sticking his tongue out childishly.

"So, what happened next?" Ace asked, directing his attention back to Luffy.

Luffy took a few moments to make sure the wetness in his eyes went away and tried not to picture the scene in his mind before he answered. "When Akainu came to attack me, you took the hit..."

That one sentence was enough to have Luffy blinking back tears again. His brothers looked at him blankly for a moment; somehow the story didn't seem over yet. And they were right.

"You died in my arms."

This time it was nearly impossible to keep from crying, which made him feel like a baby. This was the first time he really said anything about it out straight, and he was telling the two brothers he had thought dead. Well, technically they were, when he thought about it. But in a way they also weren't. He felt a bit comforted when Ace and Sabo pulled him closer in a hug, unable to say anything.

Sabo looked down at Luffy, and though it wasn't quite _his_ Luffy, it was still Luffy, so he didn't feel right as a brother to see him crying like this.

"Hey Ace," Sabo said.

"What?" Ace asked, sounding slightly annoyed.

"You owe him a bag of chips or something food related," Sabo said.

"Whaaaaaaat?!" Ace said, acting hurt, "Not my _food!_"

"Yes, your food," Sabo corrected, grinning smugly.

Luffy started laughing and looked at them both, and soon enough all three were laughing and Ace surrendered a small bag of chips to Luffy.

"Huh? How do you open this thing? What's in it?" Luffy asked, looking all over the potato chip bag.

**(A/N~ Luffy does not know what a bag of potato chips from the modern world is. This is not an episode of Chopperman, so I don't think any of the pirates would recognize a potato chip bag. Somehow I doubt they've ever even seen potato chips in a bag. But I could be wrong, so if you can give me evidence they've seen potato chips in any episode other than the Chopperman episode and short video, I would love to see it! XD lol)**

"You don't know what potato chips are?!" Ace asked.

"Uh, Sanji makes them sometimes, but they're never in weird packages," Luffy said, starting to get frustrated with the bag.

"I doubt he would have ever seen packaged potato chips in the age of the pirates, Ace," Sabo said.

"Oh, yeah. I forgot," Ace stated.

"How could you forget so quick, idiot?" Sabo said with an amused tone.

"I'm not exactly used to counterparts of my brother suddenly waking up in my brother's body!" Ace said, hands raised defensively.

Luffy finally decided he would just pop a hole in the bag with his finger and began eating the potato chips at lightning speed. Both brothers stopped and watched Luffy devour the whole bag of chips in seconds, not chewing each chip fully before sticking the next in his large mouth.

"Mmm~! These are good! But they're not as good as Sanji's," Luffy said, wiping his mouth with his hands.

Sabo's eyes lit up in recognition at Sanji's name. "So Luffy, are you friends with Sanji in your world too?"

"Hm? Yeah! He's my cook!" Luffy exclaimed.

"Your cook? You mean on your crew?" Sabo asked.

"Yeah!" Luffy said.

Sabo hummed and thought for a few moments before continuing.

"So what about these people? Zoro, Nami, Usopp, Chopper, Robin, Franky, and Brook? Are they on your crew as well?" Sabo asked.

"Yeah! How'd you know? Are you psycho?" Luffy answered.

"I think you mean psychic," Ace said.

"Yeah, that! Are you psychic?" Luffy asked again.

"No, I'm not psychic," Sabo said, "But it seems like you have the same friends in your world as you do in this one."

"Really?" Luffy asked, "I wanna see my friends in this world too! I bet they're really cool!"

"They're definitely _interesting_," Ace said, rubbing the back of his neck before his face lit up, "Oh, what about that Coby kid? Is he on your crew?"

"Huh? Coby? No, but he's my friend too! Except he's a marine so he's also my enemy," Luffy stated.

"Uh… Okay then," Ace said.

Luffy yawned. His counterparts body was all hurt and bandaged up and it made him tired. Thinking about an earlier statement Sabo had made, he decided to ask a question.

"So… My counterpart saved Ace?"

Ace and Sabo looked at him with wide eyes. One, he had managed to actually remember something important from a conversation. Two, since Luffy had blamed himself for _his_ Ace's death, it would be upsetting to hear about something like that at the moment.

"Uh… Y-Yeah…" Ace mumbled, looking away from Luffy.

Sabo walked up and ruffled Luffy's hair. "It was pretty awesome, even if I wasn't there."

"_I wish I could've done that…"_ Luffy thought, looking down at his injured and bandaged chest and touching it lightly.

"Hey, don't take this too hard, okay?" Ace said.

Luffy nodded but continued to look down. His eyelids drooped and he yawned loudly. Maybe it was time to sleep again? He was missing his crew anyways, and his counterpart would probably like to have his own body back.

"I'm gonna… take a nap…" Luffy yawned again and laid back on the pillow.

"_What a comfy pillow… Why aren't the pillows on the Sunny this comfy?"_ Luffy thought as his eyes drifted shut, _"I'll miss these pillows…"_

"_I'll miss those potato chips."_

**(Of course, the last thing Luffy thought of had to be something to do with food. Don't worry, he's not going back to the Sunny for good yet. I meant that he'll miss those things when his new – and very weird – adventure is over. Anyways, I hope everyone loved this chapter! I had most of it written out so I decided to FINALLY finish it and post it after a few weeks of only updating my other two stories.**

**Well, anyways, thanks for reading! Reviews are appreciated, but not mandatory! Bye bye!)**


	5. Introductions and Meetings

**(Oh gosh! I've been so wrapped up in writing Dream Ride that my other fics have been neglected. I'm sorry! I shall try to write more on my others but I can't tell you exactly how the future shall go. So, anyway, let's all hope for the best!**

**Maybe I'll actually get something done!**

**Disclaimer: *cough* FANFICTION *cough* This is fanfiction. I don't own One Piece, and that is why I am **_**using**_** fanfiction.)**

_Chapter 5 ~ Introductions and Meetings_

"Uh…" Luffy said, "Hello?"

The space around him was filled with black. Really, he would've liked to use his Observation Haki, but he couldn't. This was a dream.

"Hello?" he heard his voice echo back to him and he raised an eyebrow, "Is anyone there?"

Now _that_ threw him for a loop. He hadn't said anything! Was this some weird mystery dream? He thought back to the weird but cool pirate ship he had woken up on. That hadn't felt like a dream. Suddenly he recalled the fact that there had been another Luffy in his own body, just as he had been in the pirate's body. Maybe this was the other Luffy, then?

"Yeah," he called out, looking around him in hopes of finding his counterpart.

Sadly, he was unable to even see his own hand stretch in front of him so he instead stumbled forward in the darkness, hoping to move closer to the voice and the light.

"Are you me?" he said.

He could hear the other Luffy shuffle, probably taking the same course of action as him. "I think so."

"…" he remembered that the other Luffy's Ace was dead and simultaneously heard more shuffling, sounding closer than it had before, "Did you like trading places?"

"Huh?" the other Luffy asked as another shuffle alerted him that he was getting closer to his counterpart, "Yeah… It was great."

"Are you… Going to miss it?" he asked.

"Yeah, but I have business in my own world too. Can't get attached too much," the other Luffy said, "Oh, did you like my pirate ship? Cool, huh?!"

"It was really cool!" he answered, right as he stumbled into something.

"Oof!" the other Luffy said as they collided.

Suddenly the lights around them went on. Officer Luffy looked down to see his body covered in more bandages than he had probably ever seen on his body before from the hospital, and Pirate Luffy was still in his casual attire.

"Do you think it'll be the last time we switch?" Officer Luffy asked.

"Hmm…" Pirate Luffy seemed to be thinking, "Who knows?"

"How will we stop it?" Officer Luffy asked.

"We'll find a way!" Pirate Luffy assured him.

They stared at each other for a long moment. Their bodies were nearly the same, but there was something different about the pirate's eyes. Something more mature. It almost made the officer feel bad, but then realized that would basically be the same as self-pity.

"Yeah, we will," Officer Luffy said, sticking out a hand.

The pirate shook it. "Yup!"

And then darkness came back.

Was he asleep again? No, he was waking up…

xxx

The salty smell of ocean air floated into his nostrils and he felt happy to smell something other than the hospital.

"Luffy!" Chopper said, hovering over him, "Are you waking up?"

"Mmm? Yeah…" Luffy said, sitting up slowly.

"You were unconscious longer than usual," Robin pointed out, "Did something happen?"

Luffy nodded. "I met him."

"Met him? Who is 'him'?" Nami asked.

"Me," Luffy stated.

"The other Luffy?" Usopp asked, causing Luffy to nod in affirmation.

Nobody said anything as they tried to sort out their thoughts. How had all this even begun?

xxx

"Luffy?" he heard Zoro's voice and wondered if perhaps he was waking up back on the pirate ship for a moment, "You awake?"

The smells of the hospital invaded his nose, along with something much more delectable. "Meat!"

"I'll take that as a yes," Zoro said as Luffy shot up from his bed a bit too fast and began wolfing down food.

"Oi, slow down or you're going to have indigestion. Your body is already in a crappy state," Sanji warned him, foot tapping in a slightly audible manner to inform the rubber man that he was, in fact, not hesitant to kick him in the head if he disobeyed.

Luffy ate just a slight bit slower, but it seemed to be enough for Sanji as his foot tapping became less insistent.

"What's that all over your face?" Usopp asked, looking closer at Luffy's face to see streaks of dried tears, "Does it really hurt that bad?"

Luffy abruptly stopped eating – he was nearly finished anyway – to touch his cheeks. He could feel the mostly dried tear streaks there and knew what had basically happened already. "No, it's fine!"

Nobody questioned him any further; his smile told them that he meant it.

"So, how _are_ you feeling?" Usopp asked.

"Hmm… It hurts, but it's not that bad," Luffy said, "And meat will fix it, so I'll be fine!"

The three boys sweatdropped.

"Oh, I should probably tell you," Luffy began, "There's another me!"

"… Another…" Usopp began.

"... You…?" Zoro finished.

"Well, that's a first," Sanji said.

"Yeah, and he's a pirate, and you guys are on his crew too!" Luffy said, grinning happily.

"Oi, Luffy, have you gone crazy? I always knew you were an odd one…" Usopp said.

"No, no! I'm serious! You can ask Ace and Sabo too! They know! And when I go back to sleep, we switch places, and I get to see his really cool pirate ship!" Luffy said.

"Maybe you need to be sleeping _now_," Sanji said, not believing Luffy's story.

After all, Luffy did say some pretty crazy stuff sometimes.

"No, I believe you," Zoro said, before adding, "I think…"

"Why would you believe something like that? He's injured and on pain meds!" Usopp said, pointing to the machines by Luffy's hospital bed as if to prove a point.

"How many wacky things has Luffy said?" Zoro asked.

"A ton!" Usopp said.

"How many has he lied about?" Zoro asked, causing silence to reign over the room.

"As much as I hate to admit it, I think you might be right," Sanji said, fighting with himself over his cigarettes. He wanted to light one, but he knew he couldn't. Shouldn't and couldn't. Darn.

"So then… Is the crew the same as us?" Usopp asked.

"Sorta! Zoro is a swordsman, Nami is a navigator, you're a sniper, Sanji's the cook, Chopper is still a doctor, Robin is… an archaeolo-something, Franky is a shipwright, and Brook is a musician!" Luffy said.

"Is Brook still a skeleton? And is Chopper still a reindeer?" Usopp asked, now getting more excited since Luffy was explaining it.

"Yup! And they're still really funny too!" Luffy said.

"What about Ace and Sabo?" Usopp asked, causing Luffy to suddenly stop moving around.

"Ace is…" Luffy said, almost feeling the loss himself, but reminding himself that his Ace was still there, safe and sound, "He's dead there."

"Dead?" the other three boys in the room asked.

"But what about Sabo?" Usopp asked.

"Nope! But I think the other Luffy thinks he's dead," Luffy said, frowning.

"Hmm…" Usopp hummed, before visibly brightening, "You said really cool pirate ship?"

"Yeah, it's the Sunny! Like our hangout, and like the pirate dream I have all the time!" Luffy said.

"That's weird," Usopp said.

"Maybe you've actually just been seeing things happen in that other world and those are your pirate dreams," Zoro suggested.

"Dunno!" Luffy said, "But it's fun! And everyone's still the same!"

"So Nami is still greedy and sneaky?" Usopp asked, to which Sanji growled at him like a feral dog.

Luffy laughed at his friends antics while Chopper entered the room.

"What are you guys laughing about?" Chopper asked.

"Oh, Chopper! You need to know too!" Luffy said.

"Everyone needs to know. Let's wait until everyone is together to tell him," Zoro said.

"Aww~! Can't I at least tell Chopper?" Luffy asked.

"Fine," Zoro said.

Luffy then proceeded to tell Chopper everything he had told the other boys.

"I'm so happy I get to be your doctor there too!" Chopper said happily.

"I wonder when I'll fall asleep again? Then maybe you'll get to meet the other me!" Luffy said.

"You just want to go see that cool pirate ship again," Sanji said.

Luffy laughed. "Yep! But I want you guys to meet the other Luffy too. He's different."

"Different?" Zoro asked.

"Yeah…" Luffy frowned, "It's hard to explain. You'll know when you look him in the eyes, but he's different."

xxx

Luffy basically explained all he could to his crew about the other world and the other Luffy.

"So you haven't seen any of us there yet?" Nami asked.

"Nope!" Luffy said, then smiled, "I hope I get to if I go there again!"

"And in the meanwhile, we can try and search for a way to stop it," Robin added.

"Yeah. I don't want to get attached to anything over there," Luffy said, frowning and looking down.

Usopp and Chopper patted him on the back. "It's okay buddy! We're here for you!"

"Thanks guys," Luffy said, looking back up with a replenished smile.

Suddenly his stomach growled loudly.

"Sanjiiiiii~!" Luffy whined, "Fooooooood~!"

"I know!" Sanji said, "I'm on it, okay? Now be patient."

"Yay!" Luffy cheered as Sanji went through the door from the infirmary to the kitchen.

"Well, I suppose it's time for me to go start searching through my books for anything of use," Robin said, standing up, "I'll be leaving now."

"I've been inspired by all of this to create a new song!" Brook said, also standing, "Yohohoho! I hope I will be able to lift your spirits with it when I am finished, Luffy-san!"

Everyone perked up at the thought of Brook's music and Sanji's dinner, and everything seemed to return to a relative normality.

**(Yay! Finally a new chapter! It's been, what, almost a month? Personally, while I do like writing this story, it wasn't my original idea and it's kind of spinning away from what it was supposed to be. And while I would like to return everything back to the way it's supposed to be, it's a bit late for that XD**

**Anyway, thanks for reading! Hope everyone enjoyed the new chapter! And sorry it's a bit short… Reviews are appreciated, loved, and adored, but not required, okay? Thanks!)**


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